If you want to learn more about the HBtechfest (and you do) you should probably read why Chris Long’s HBtechfest is THE district based PD of the year. You may also want to check out some of the photos of the twice a year HBtechfest on Twitter. So here are just a few of the values and guiding principles of an HBtechfest.

• You’ve gotta have fun.
• Themes and costumes are fun and make for great photos and memories.
• Attendance is limited and voluntary.
• Get students involved right away in the planning, staging, and presenting.
• Make friends, talk to your secretaries. Get them involved in helping you find funding sources and decorating the event.
• Bring outside voices in. If you have money, bring someone special in. You can bring them in via Google Hangout On Air, Skype, or via recorded messages. Maybe due a Voxer session with people from around the world.
• Have photos ops, photo booths, hands-on activities that are both fun and worthy of snapping a few photos.
• Bring in good food.
• Invite some parents. Make sure those students show up.
• Experiment, if you are sure of how everything is going to go, you didn’t push it far enough.
• Be intentional about play. Plan for play.
• Talk to your district’s print shop. What crazy things can they do?
• Always try one thing you’ve never done before.
• Recruit your best, and some new people in district to present or run sessions.
• Feel free to edcamp the techfest. Either all of it, or a part of it. Sessions do not have to have screens and presentations. They can be held outside even.
• What if you created an all mobile techfest or an all outside fest? What would that look like?
• Have some interesting Keynotes, but keep them short, if possible.
• Hold it in an interesting or nice venue.